The mum of one of the youngest victims of the Croydon tram crash has remembered him as a “brilliant, loving and funny person” on the first anniversary of the tragedy.

Jean Smith, 61, said her 35-year-old son Mark had “a lot more to give” and has been left devastated by the loss of her eldest child.

Mark, a passionate carp fisherman, had become a dad, to his son Lucas, for the first time 18 months before he died on his way to work as a window installer on November 9, 2016.

“His life revolved around his family,” said Jean, speaking publicly for the first time since the disaster.

“He was a clever boy. But then his dad is a clever man so that’s where he got it from, he learnt everything from his dad.”

Mark spent most of his childhood and years as a young adult growing up in his family home in Waddon Park Avenue, attending Waddon Infant School and Parish Church Junior School before moving on to Thomas More Catholic School and Coulsdon College.

He worked with his dad Colin, 61, as a window fitter, working on huge projects such as the King Richard III Visitor Centre in Leicester.

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Jean said the family’s proudest day was when her son became a dad with his fiancée Indre Novikovaite giving birth to Lucas – who is now aged two-and-a-half years old.

“Lucas is the light in our lives,” said Jean. “He’s the only thing really that we get complete joy out of but it’s still bittersweet because Mark’s not here.

“You get a lot of people turning around and seeing a lot of similarities between Lucas and his dad but, as I say, he may be like Mark, but he’s not.”

On November 9 last year, Mark, who was living in Coulsdon with his family, had parked his car near Lloyd Park tram stop before boarding the tram on his journey to central London to work on a specialist glass project.

Mark with his fiancée Indre Novikovaite and their son Lucas (Image: British Transport Police)

He didn’t even make one stop before the tram derailed at speed on the Sandilands bend, killing him and six others.

Jean can remember her last moments with her son clearly.

She said: “The night before I spoke to him, he was in the car outside our place, he had Lucas in the back, he put the window down and he said ‘Mum I’ve got to get the tram into work tomorrow’. I said ‘alright boy’.

“I got the Oyster card, I tucked £20 in and gave him a peck on either cheek and said ‘see you later’, and that was it. I’m thankful and grateful that we parted on very good terms.”

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She said: “I got the iPad out, I’m sure I saw that vision of the tram on its side with the tarpaulin around and when I read the article and I saw the time [of the crash] I said to Stacey (Mark’s sister), ‘Mark could be on that tram’.”

Although she thought her son could have been on board, Jean expected Mark would be sitting in a hospital bed with broken limbs but a “big, cheeky smile on his face”.

700 people attended Mark Smith's funeral (Image: Family handout)

After spending the afternoon at a hospital, the family were told they could either stay or make their way home and wait for further news.

“I think by then the penny had dropped, I went into a side room and rang one of my sisters and one of my brothers-in-law and I told them ‘I think Mark has been killed on the tram’,” said Jean.

Her British Transport Police liaison officers, who the family have since grown close to, turned up that night to start to collect information about Mark.

“I remember that first night, you lay there, your eyes are shut, and you’re wide awake,” she said.

“My mind was totally blank, I think there was a little part of me that already knew.”

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In the devastating first days after Mark’s death was confirmed, Jean said she became “numb”, not eating and finding sleeping near enough impossible.

She explained: “This is going to sound crazy, but I couldn’t sleep in my own bed, it didn’t feel right to be going to bed because things weren’t normal, and going to bed is a normal thing.

“I think it took the better part of a month before I managed to sleep in bed all night.”

Mark Smith with his friend Ash Balakrishnan

She added: “It’s broken us. I accept that my son is gone, but I'll never accept the way of his going.

“To be honest although it is coming up to the milestone of the first anniversary, your life is still on hold until the investigation is over. You’re still in limbo in a way.”

In tribute to her son’s love of cars, the family have kept his personalised number plate – M4BKY, as he was known as ‘Marky’ to many close to him – and it now sits proudly on Colin’s car, as he keeps it for until Lucas is old enough to drive.

He was also a keen angler, running a fishing blog on YouTube which had hundreds of subscribers.

On what would have been his 36th birthday on October 13, Jean brought out the box his ashes are in - a replica of his coffin with his personalised number plate on the front and back - with two pictures of him and a candle.

“Nearly everybody that’s come in [to the house and sees the tribute] has said Mark feels a part of us still,” said Jean.

Jean said Lucas has been “robbed” of his dad, but they are determined to keep the memory of his dad alive.

“We are going to try and instil into him the same values that we instilled into Mark,” said Jean.

“Mark's been on a couple of memory boards at people’s weddings this year.

“And there’s one where his friend got married and he invited me and Colin to the reception as he said 'we’ve got a lot to be thankful for with Mark, if it hadn’t had been for Mark, me and my new wife wouldn’t have even met each other'.

“Mark was the sort of boy that once you met him, you never forgot him, and he never forgot you.

“Mark packed more into his 35 years than most of us do in a lifetime twice as long.